Anthony Sutton is a first-year MFA candidate at Purdue University. He has received fellowships from Gulf Coast, Gemini Ink, The Poetry at Round Top Festival, and, with Glass Mountain, the AWP National Program Director’s Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Nothing. No One. Nowhere., Cider Press Review, Identity Theory, and elsewhere. He occasionally blogs at Ostrich Review.---------
O, Injury. O, Wolf. O, God. No—
O, red wolf born
in my father’s artery
as a stroke. O, red
wolf who gnaws
the air to the shape
of dying. O,
red wolf who killed
God. O, red wolf
who needs God.
O, red wolf, who
tramples at the edge? O,
red wolf, all my friends have been
diagnosed with you in their heads.
O, red wolf in my memory. O,
red wolf, I am
trying to stop.
The King of Doom Lesson
on Geology, Anatomy, and Psychology
I.
Fire is a mineral. If anyone thinks differently,
think about cinder: grains, stilled infernos,
lay underground.
II.
A city burns in his chest.
III.
Flares sprout asphodels along burn holes
in his ribs. Fiery petals shower the wind.
Of course fire incinerates. He’s afraid of how fast.